Buoyant safety belt



28, 1956 R. J. GAZELLE 2,760,212

BUOYANT SAFETY BELT Filed June 10, 1954 IN VEN TOR.

fiuchava J. 64:51.45. BY

A T70 R May United States PatentOffice BUOYANT SAFETY BELT Rolland J. Gazelle, New York, N. Y., assignor of one-half to Walter T. Anderson, Detroit, Mich.

Application June 10, 1954, Serial No. 435,835

3 Claims. (Cl. 9-19) This invention relates to a safety belt having buoyant characteristics, and more particularly to a belt having a series of inflatable inter-connected compartments.

It is the object of the present invention to provide a novel construction of belt having a series of inflatable interconnected pockets into which a gaseous medium may be introduced under the control of the user for rendering the belt buoyant for supporting the user in the water.

It is the further object of the present invention to provide a belt construction of this type wherein gas under perssure stored within a capsule may be manually released for instantaneously filling the various expansible compartments.

It is the further object of the present invention to construct the individual compartments of a folding diaphragm construction to permit expansion to a greatly increased volumetric capacity.

It is the further object of the present invention to provide a safety mechanism in conjunction with said belt wherein a second source of expansible gas is available for use.

It is the further object of this invention to provide a belt having a series of spaced expansible pocket elements arranged alternately around the belt together with separate and independent sources of expansible gas respectively connecting alternate compartments.

These and other objects will be seen from the following specification and claims in conjunction with the appended drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 illustrates the belt as applied to a user.

Fig. 2 is a partially broken away front elevational view of the belt opened into a flat strip. 1

Fig. 3 is a perspective view on an enlarged scale illustrating a single pocket in expanded form.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary partially broken away front elevational view of a slightly different form of safety belt construction.

It will be understood that the above drawing illustrates merely a preferred embodiment of the invention, and that other embodiments are contemplated within the scope of the claims hereafter set forth.

Referring to the drawing, the present belt of Figs. 1, 2 and 3, includes an elongated rectangular strip 11 of any flexible material, such as plastic material for illustration. To the opposite ends of said strip there are secured as at points 13, a series of fastening tabs 12 with inter-connectable buckle elements 14 and 15 for use as shown in Fig. l. The tabs may be stitched to the body of the strip, or if constructed of a plastic substance, may be supportably secured to the strip 11, if of a plastic substance, by the application of heat or pressure or both to effectively secure the tabs to the body of the strip.

Mounted upon the outer face of strip 11 there are provided a series of independent longitudinally spaced expansible pockets 16, which are each preferably self-contained units secured as by stitching or a welding process, to the front surface of the strip 11 as at the points 17.

The pocket 16 includes a bottom wall 18 indicated by the dotted lead lines in Fig. 3, and which is suitably secured to the strip 11, such as at the points 17 in the mannerabove described. However, it is contemplated that the bottom 18 could be eliminated with the corresponding outer surface of strip 11 serving the function of closing pocket 16, as long as the side edges thereof are properly sealed to the strip as at 17.

The pocket additionally includes the substantially flat yet flexible outer wall 19', said outer wall being interconnected with base 18 and strip 11 by the top and bottom wall elements 19 and 20, which are adapted to fold longitudinally over each other along the line 24 into substantial parallel relation when the pocket is collapsed, as shown in Fig. 2.

Similarly, the pocket has oppositely arranged folding side walls including the side wall elements 21 and 22 adapted to fold along the line 25 into parallel engaging relation with each other, substantially, when the pocket is collapsed to thereby occupy the minimum of space.

Each of the pockets 16 are interconnected with each other upon their interiors by the sealed conduits 26 and 27 at their top and bottom portions whereby the upper interiors of adjacent pockets are interconnected as are also the lower interiors thereof.

Within each of the conduits 26 and 27 there is provided a one-way valve 28, which is preferably a ball type valve, which will permit introduction of gas into a compartment but will prohibit its escape therefrom.

Mounted upon the end pocket 16 of Fig. 2 is fitting 29 containing one-way valve 30. Connected to said fitting in communication on its interior with valve 30 is the upright cylinder 31 with removable cover 32 adapted to contain a compressed gas cartridge 33,'which may contain carbon dioxide, for illustation.

Cantilever 35 is pivotally mounted at 36 upon the end of cylinder 31 and when pivoted in a counterclockwise direction by pull cord 37 and handle 38 longitudinally actuates capsule piercing pin 34 for releasing the compressed gas which will expand, pass through valve 30 and into the first pocket 16.

The expanding gas will immediately pass through the valve and interconnecting conduits 26 and 27 between the various pockets 16 until all have been filled and expanded substantially to the shape shown in Fig. 3.

Each of the conduits 26 and 27 contains a separate one-way valve similar to valve 28 to thereby prevent the escape of gas from a particular pocket and also to protect the remaining pockets in the event that any individual pocket thereafter was pierced and the gas therein lost. The remaining pockets would then operate as independent units and their gas would not be lost.

Mounted upon the opposite side of the first pocket 16 there is provided a second gas capsule containing cylinder 39 of the same construction as cylinder 31, and to which there is pivoted an operating cantilever with separate pull cord 37' and handle 38, whereby should the first capsule 33 fail to operate or be fully effective, a second capsule can be punctured and the gas therein released for filling the pockets. Furthermore the second capsule or cartridge container may be used at a later time for adding additional gas to the compartments should there be a slight leakage or to otherwise increase the buoyancy of the belt.

A slight variation is shown in Fig. 4 wherein the same type of belt includes the flexible strip 40, and mounted thereon a series of expansible flexible pockets 41 arranged in longitudinally spaced relation throughout the length of the belt. At one end of the belt there is a slightly enlarged expansible supply pocket 42 having joined thereto a compressed gas capsule containing cylinder 43 together with control valve 44 and operated by pull chain 46 and Patented Aug. 28, 1956 handle 47, in the same manner as above described in connection with cylinder 31.

The conduit 48 is joined by a fitting 48' to the lower end of pocket 42,:and a series of fittings 49 of the T type are incorporated into conduit 48 for separately supplying expanded gas to the alternate pockets '41 which are arranged throughout the length of the belt, there being suitable one-way ball or other type valves 50 in the fittings 49 to prevent the escape of gas from the respective pockets 4.1 afterthey have been filled.

There is provided a second supply :pocket 51 at the opposite end of the strip-40 to which is also secured a second gas cartridge-containing cylinder 52, which is of exactly the same construction as cylinders '43 and 31, and therefore further description thereof is omitted. The

7 upper portion of .pocket 51.has .a fitting 53 to which is connected supply conduit 54 which extends substantially throughout the length of the strip 40 and which throughout the length of said conduit has a series of separate T fittings 55 similarto fittings 49 to provide communication to the interiors of the alternately arranged pockets 56. Also, there are provided suitable one-way valves 57 within said fit-tings,-the same-as one-way valves 50.

By this construction, the release of gas from one cartridge into pocket 42 will expand that pocket and the longitudinally .spaced alternately arranged set of pockets 41, which undersome conditions give sufficient buoyant support to the user. Should there not be sufficient buoyant support, or on the other hand should the releasing mechanism fail or the supply fail, then the user may release the second cartridge within cylinder 52 thereby expanding the second set-of alternately arranged pockets 56.

There is also provided as fragmentarily shown in Fig. 2, a protective nylon or other ,cover7, which is intended to prevent accidental piercing of the respective pockets and which is adapted to extend over substantially the length of the belt, though said cover isornitted from Fig. 1 in order to notdetract from the clarity of the illustration.

The protective cover 57.has formed upon its opposite sides a series of apertures 58-to prevent the cover vfrom filling up with water.

The protective cover is oversize and is folded in any convenient fashion,.so thatitisfreeto expand to ,permit expansion of the various pockets.

Having described my invention, reference should now be had to the claims which follow for determining the scope thereof.

I claim:

1. In a safety belt for use in the water, an elongated strip forming the body of the belt, a series of longitudinally spaced flexible expansiblepockets mounted on said strip, a releasable source of compressed gas joined to one of said pockets, a conduit extending from said pocket with longitudinally spaced "fittings respectively connecting the other pockets -with;said conduit, a second series of longitudinally spaced pockets mounted on said strip alternately of and spaced from'said first'series of pockets, a second releasable source of compressed gas joined to one of said second series of pockets, a second conduit extending from said latter pocket of said second series with longitudinally spaced fittings respectively connecting each'oftheother pockets of said second series-of pockets with said second .conduit.

2. The belt of claim 1, and one-way valves within each of said fittings.

3. The belt -.of claim 1, the sides and top and bottom walls of each pocket being foldable along their center lines whereby the folded portions of said sides and walls are in substantialparallel engaging, relation when collapsed so that the uninflated pocket .lies closely adjacent the strip.

References Citedjnthefile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 419,132 Wilcox Jan. 7, 1890 1,130,297 'Kasser Mar. 2, 1915 1,849,637 'Peternalla Mar. 15, 1932 2,128,423 Manson Aug. 30, 1938 2,347,010 Ward Apr. 18, 1944 2,359,843 Harris Oct. 10, 1944 2,508,303 Sturtevant May 16, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS 13,108 Sweden Oct. 5, 1901 201,501 Great Britain Aug. 2, 1923 467,522 Italy Dec. 10, 1951 864,213 France Apr. 22, 1941 

